Baltimore Comic Con '08: 2008 Harvey Awards Announced

The 2008 Harvey Awards saw a wide variety of publishers and creators winning awards at this year’s Baltimore Comic Con
presentation, with DC sweeping the top five categories of Best
Continuing or Limited Series, Best Writer, Best Artist, Best Cartoonist
and Best Single Issue or Story.

The evening was kicked off by Paul McSpadden, spokesman for the Harvey
Awards Committee who gave opening remarks and introduced the keynote
speaker, Brian Michael Bendis.

Bendis recalled the last time he attended the Harvey Awards – the 2001
ceremony at the Pittsburgh Comicon where Frank Miller famously railed
against Wizard
magazine and the evils of Hollywood, his speech culminating with Miller
tearing apart an issue of the magazine in front of the crowd. Bendis
reflected upon how much the times have changed since Miller’s speech,
something that was driven home for him when he saw the new trailer for Will Eisner’s The Spirit film (directed by Miller) when he was preparing his speech.

Noting this, Bendis stressed to the audience that it is past time that
the comics community start acting the part, and recognize that
Hollywood needs “us” more than we need “them.”

“They can’t do what we do,” Bendis said. “They will try to steal it
from us if they can, because they’re angry that they can’t do it” – the
latter being used in reference to creating stories and properties from
nothing.

“What I’m trying to say to all of you is: lawyer up,” Bendis said,
adding that Hollywood with all of its dealmakers and offers are scared
of creators that say “no,” and aren’t afraid to turn down money and
opportunity if it’s not the deal that they want and the deal that they
know they should have.

Bendis went on in the second part of his speech to point out that it’s
time to stop debating about the digital revolution and how it may
affect comics because, “it’s already here.”

“We need to start thinking about a new language of comics,” Bendis
said, noting that he’s not convinced that taking an existing comic book
and “wiggling” it is what audiences who want comics on their digital
devices, from computers to phones, want to see. Bendis said that, as he
sees it, this new language of comics will hearken back to Scott
McCloud’s vision of an “endless cave wall” to continue drawing on, and
using to tell a story – a fluid meshing of words and pictures in a
manner that we’ve never seen and have only just begun to imagine.

After the speech, the host of the ceremony, Kyle Baker was introduced
who began the presentations by introducing the various presenters. The
winners of the 2008 Harvey Awards are: